Apparatus for drying fabrics.



A. T. METGALF 5: H. V. NUNN. APPARATUS FOR DRYING FABRICS.

. APPLICATION FILED MAR 19. 1912. 1,090,934. Patented Mar. 24, 19M

' SHEETS-SHEET 1.

' A. T. METOALP & H. v. NUNN. APPARATUS FOR DRYING FABRICS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 19, 1912. 1,@9U,93% Patented Mar. 24, 1914 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

q i is might be treated by them, so that the our- WfTED @TATES ra'rnn'r ora ion.

ALFRED TOWNLEY METCALF AND HARRY VAUGHAN NUNN, 0F BRADFORD, ENG- LAND, ASSIGNORS TO BRADFORD DYERS ASSOCIATION, OF BRADFORD, ENG-LAND,

A LIMITED COMPANY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 2d, 1914:.

Application filed March 19, 1912. Serial No. 684,793.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALFRED TowNLnY METoALr and HARRY VAUGHAN NU'NN, subjects of the Kingof Great Britain, and residents, respectively, of 174 Lister avenue,

Bradford, in the county of York, England,

and 7 Saltburn Place, Bradford aforesaid, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Drying Fabrics, of which the following description, together with the accompanying sheets of drawings, is a specification.

In the drying of fabrics while in their stretched conditions, as when passing throughstentering and like machines, it is desirable that the full surfaces of said fabrips should be treated evenly in order that when same are discharged or delivered from the machine said fabrics should present a uniform appearance.

In the drying of fabrics in the machine referred to, as heretofore carried out, nozzles or ducts having elongated orifices arranged in rows or series beneath said fabrics as same are carried through the ma chine have been made useof and these nozzles havebeen of such character that they could be turned from occupying one position as when narrow fabrics were being treated, to positions where broad fabrics rents of heated air discharged therefrom might act evenly over the whole surface. When the means or apparatus, such as the traveling chains with their gripping jaws or pins, have had to be adjusted to meet the requirements of a broader fabric, the

attendant has had to go beneath the machine and within the inclosed space where the nozzles are situated, in order to adjust each nozzle so that the currents of air discharged by them would be conducted to the fabric as desired. As the air conducted by these nozzles is at a considerable temperature the walls of the nozzles become heated so that it is .a matter of great difficulty to handle them and unless the attendant is practically forced so to'do, their positions are entirely neglected with the'result that the treatment of the fabrics is not sufiicient -by reason of the-central part being made drier than the selvages thereof. To apply means whereby these nozzles may be readily adjusted without the attendantor anyone having to handle same or to enter the space beneath the machine where they are situated is the object of our present invention.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings which are illustrative of our said invention:Figure l is a side elevation of sufficient proportion of a stentering machine to illustrate our said improvements. 'Fig. 2 is a part sectional end elevation thereof. Figs?) is a plan of said stentering machine. Fig. 4 is also a side elevation of a portion of a stentering machine and illustrates a modification of our said invention. Fig. 5 1s a plan of parts slrown by Fig. 4.

To attain the object of our invention we arrange the series of nozzles a as heretofore but we so construct them that by having radiating arms 5 with slots 0 to take over pins or projections of (which if desired carry antifriction bowls) on a rod 7 extending the whole length of the machine,'by the operation of said rod f the nozzles a connected thereto may be rotated to occupy any positions which the attendant may desire, and provided the machine is of such dimensions as illustrated by the several drawings as to only require one rod f to actuate the whole series, then such rod is employed.

It is obvious that instead of using rods f with projecting pins d taking into slots 0 of the arms 6 the lower ends of the nozzles a may have quadrant teeth 9 formed upon them to gear with rack teeth It formed on the rods f as illustrated by Fig. 5. The rods f which are arranged to actuate'the nozzles a above described are arranged so that by a lever as is, the other arm of which forms a toothed quadrant, a worm m may engage with said quadrant while the shaft 02. upon wheel 10 secured thereon, thus the rod f may, by the actuations of the hand wheel 11,

will be understood. Or the shaft n may have a sprocket wheel 9 mounted upon it .While a similar sprocket wheel 9 is mounted upon one or other of the screw-shafts as r (the two being geared together by the chain 8) which are employed in this type of machine. to actuate and adjust the stretcher chains at a greater or less distance 'apart; in this manner whenever these chains are adjusted to meet the requirements of the fabric beingtreated, whether such fabric is be caused to move one way or the other as which said worm is fixed may have a hand of wide width or narrow width, the screw shaft 1' will transmit to the shaft n the exact motion to enable same to move the rod f to keep the adjustments of the nozzles a in unison with the adjustment of the stretching chains. By this arrangement of devices it is clear that we may adjust the nozzles a so that their upper laterally wide orifices or mouths a may direct the issuing heated air to impinge upon the Whole width of the fabric passing over them, whether such fabric is narrow or broad, and therefore we secure uniformity in the treatment or drying of such fabrics for the purposes stated.

'Such being the nature and object of our said invention, what we claim is 1. In apparatus for drying fabric, a plu-- adjusting said nozzles to shift their outlets toward and from a plane between them.

3. In apparatus for dryingfabric, a plurality of air-nozzles mounted to swing in parallelism, said nozzles having their outlets inclined relatively to their axes of adjustment, and means for simultaneously adjusting said nozzles to shift their outlets toward and from a plane between them, said means comprising a longitudinally movable rod, and operative connections between said rod and the nozzles.

4. In apparatus for drying fabric, a plurality of air-nozzles mounted to swing in parallelism, said nozzles having their outlets inclined relatively to their axes of adjustment, a longitudinally movable rod, operative connections between said rod and the nozzles for simultaneously adjusting their outlets toward and from a plane between them, and screw and lever devices for actuating said rod.

5. In apparatus for drying fabric, a plu-' rality of air-nozzles mounted to swing in parallelism, said nozzles having their outlets inclined relatively to their axes of adjustment, meansfor simultaneously adjusting said nozzles to shift their outlets toward and from a plane between them, an adjusting screw, and connections between said adjusting-screw and the means for adjusting the nozzles, to actuate the latter from the former. I

- 6. In apparatus for drying fabric, a plurality of air-nozzles mounted to swing in parallelism, said nozzles having their outlets inclined relatively to their axes of adjustment, a longitudinally movable rod, operative connections between said rod and the nozzles, a lever for actuating said rod, said lever having a toothed quadrant, a shaft having a worm for actuating said toothed quadrant, an adjustin screw, and means for operating the worm s aftfrom said adjust.- in screw.

In-apparatus for drying fabric, a plurality of air-nozzles mounted to swing in parallelism, said nozzles having their outlets inclined relatively to their axes of adjustment, a longitudinally movable rod,operative connections between said rod and the nozzles, a lever for actuating said rod, said 'lever having a toothed quadrant, a shaft having a worm for actuating said toothed quadrant, said worm shaft having a sprocket-wheel, an adjusting-screw having a sprocket-wheel, and a chain mounted on said sprocket-wheels.

In testimony whereof we have afiixed our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

ALFRED TOWNLEY METOALF. HARRY VAUGHAN NUNN.

Witnesses:

Rn. B. NIoHoLus, A. E. INGRAM. 

